OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY 2019 at the and the Council of the European Union As the European Union’s (EU) policies ultimately shape many aspects of the life of more than 500 million citizens, it is crucial that EU decisions be taken as openly and as closely as possible to them.

Since many of these decisions are legally binding for EU Member States and citizens, people need to be able to access clear information on how and why European legislation is adopted. Who are we?

The European Council is the EU The Council of the European The Council Presidency rotates The General Secretariat institution that sets the general Union – also known as the Council among the EU Member States of the Council supports the work direction and priorities – is a EU decision-maker. every six months. It organises of both the European Council of the Union. It represents It consists of the representatives and chairs meetings and the Council, mainly the highest level of political of the governments of the EU of the Council, and draws by providing policy and legal cooperation between Member States. Your national up compromises to facilitate advice, translation into 24 the Member States. Your Prime ministers and experts from decision-making. languages and logistical support Minister, President or Chancellor national ministries come together currently holds the Council for the organisation of meetings. meets in with the other in Brussels to adopt EU laws Presidency until the end national leaders, along with and the EU budget, together of December 2019. It will be It is based in Brussels with around the President of the European with the European Parliament. followed by Croatia and Germany 3 000 staff members recruited Council and the President of the in 2020. from all over the EU. European Commission, at least once every two to three months.

General Affairs Council, November 2019 ­— From left to right: Marja RISLAKKI, Permanent Flags of the EU Member States in the Europa Buildings of the European Council Representative of Finland to the EU; building. and the Council of the European Union. Tytti TUPPURAINEN, Minister for European S3 room where the European Council meets. Affairs of Finland. • Press releases and meeting information Open about the Council of the EU, the European Council communication and the Eurogroup; • Information on the President of the European Through the Council website, Council and the President of the Eurogroup, their we communicate proactively on activities, statements and speeches; the way in which decisions are • Streaming of public discussions on EU legislation, press statements by ministers and heads of state, made throughout their various and press conferences; stages in the European Council • A wide range of Council publications on EU and the Council of the EU. policies and information and guides on EU procedures, as well as clarification on different Group of students visiting the Europa building. Most of the Council website aspects of EU legislation; pages are available in all EU • The results of Council voting on EU legislation • Step inside the iconic Europa building and learn languages. and a voting calculator that you can use about the Council’s work in the Visitors’ Centre; to simulate the outcome of a vote (also available • Join the thousands of visitors who come to visit You can also sign up for our email as an application for your mobile devices); us every year, in May, during the EU Open Day; alert service. This enables you • The latest developments and background • Ask questions about the work of the Council to create your own personalised information on major EU initiatives under and the European Council in any of the 24 subscription so that the content discussion in the Council; official EU languages. Our dedicated service of your choice is delivered directly • Access to the Council library resources and will reply to you, in your (EU) native language, to your mailbox. to the Council archives for documents dating within 15 working days. back more than 30 years.

We also aim to engage with persons or groups impacted by or interested in our activities. These include citizens, media, schools and academia, policy- makers from all levels of government (EU, national, regional and local), civil society and other interest groups.

EU Open Day, May 2019. Transparent decision-making

We provide information on EU Doing more to increase the EU’s openness and laws and how decisions are taken transparency is a long-standing goal of Finland, which in the Council as openly and as currently holds the EU Presidency (until 31.12.2019). quickly as possible. For more information, consult the Finnish Presidency website. The rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU also plays a key The trio of the Romanian, Finnish and Croatian role in ensuring the openness Presidencies is committed to making meetings between interest groups and their respective Permanent and transparency of the work Representative and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Council. to the EU conditional on the registration of such interest groups in the EU Transparency Register. This commitment covers their term of office as Presidency of the Council and the six months preceding this term.

‘Transparency and effective communication are important tools that are used to bring the EU closer to citizens, strengthen democracy and counter disinformation. We need to work together to find pragmatic ways in which to make EU decision-making more open and understandable to citizens.’ — ANTTI RINNE, Prime Minister of Finland (6.6.2019 to 9.12.2019) The Council always meets in You can follow live or recorded public when discussing draft briefings of your political leaders legislation. You can follow live and their public statements made sessions of Council debates at the Council. and votes on legislative acts in any of the EU languages. You can download the agendas of all Council meetings and of the Permanent Representatives Official Council documents The Council has developed Committee (Coreper) – which related to EU legislation are a policy on open data and re-use prepares the Council’s work. available in the Council’s of Council documents. Data sets public register of documents. are available on the EU Open Data Portal. About 80 % of these documents are immediately accessible Employment, Social Policy, Health and More information on the activities Consumer Affairs Council, public session. online. You may apply for access and work of the Council is to any of the remaining 20 %. You can consult or download available here. These documents are made the conclusions of the European public, subject to exceptions Council meetings from our laid down under the EU rules website, in any of the EU Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council joint press conference of Education and on transparency. languages. Finance Ministers.

The rules of procedure of the European Council and of the Council respectively set out basic rules for their meetings, including voting rules, which sessions should be public, when documents should be published, etc. Rue de la Loi • Wetstraat 175 This publication is produced by the Cover, pages 1, 2, 3 and 5. Europa building: 1048 Bruxelles • Brussel General Secretariat of the Council and © Philippe Samyn and Partners architects Belgique • België is intended for information purposes only. and – lead and design partner, It does not involve the responsibility of Studio Valle Progettazioni architects, Buro Tel. +32 (0)2 281 61 11 the EU institutions or the Member States. Happold engineers. Colour compositions: © Georges Meurant, Although we make every effort to ensure 2016. www.consilium.europa.eu that links in this publication are accurate and up to date, the EU institutions cannot Page 4. © Laura Kotila, Prime Minister’s /eucouncil take responsibility for links failing to work Office. Use and rights: CC-BY-4.0, 2019. properly. For use or reproduction of photos or For further information on the European other material that is not under the EU Council and the Council, visit the website copyright, permission must be sought www.consilium.europa.eu or contact directly from the copyright holder. the Public Information Service of the General Secretariat of the Council: Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175, 1048 Bruxelles/Brussel, Belgique/België www.consilium.europa.eu/infopublic. More information on the European Union is available at www.europa.eu.

Brussels: General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, 2019

© European Union, 2019

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Print ISBN 978-92-824-7080-0 doi:10.2860/86644 QC-03-19-896-EN-C PDF ISBN 978-92-824-7072-5 doi:10.2860/92254 QC-03-19-896-EN-N